Role of Police

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the appropriate roles that the police, as an institution, should play in the future. The paper is divided into several sections. First, the paper compares and contrasts the several roles it presents. Then, the author presents his own perspective: that the police's role should be to balance public good against individual liberty and it discusses strategies that can be implemented.

From the Paper:

"Role of Police: Balancing Public Security and Individual Liberty Introduction The role that police play in society is often misunderstood. While popular wisdom and commonsensical knowledge tells us that the primary role of police is to serve and protect, with a significant emphasis on law enforcement, scholarly research into the subject proves otherwise. For instance, Van Maanen (year) points out that even the police, as a social institution, perceive their primary social function to be that of law enforcement. Media conceptions of the police only serve to reinforce this perception, with frequent portrayals of police officers hunting down criminals and protecting the community from their continued sociopathic behavior. The question before us encompasses the extent to which such a conception of the police is at all accurate. What's more, even if it were found to be accurate, does it constitute the preferred social role of the police?"

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